International Kierkegaard Commentary Volume 13: The Corsair Affair

In late 1845 Søren Kierkegaard began a literary duel with the satiric Danish review The Corsair that had momentous effects on his life and work. The affair prompted Kierkegaard to ponder and write about the use and abuse of the press. His reflections on this subject led him to examine topics that included communication, the public, the public morale, and the issues of social legitimacy, the relation of the individual to society and, surprisingly enough, the nature of the comic. The Corsair Affair, is not like any other volume previously published or planned in the series. It contains only a few pages of Kierkegaard's own published writings, while his unpublished journals constitute most of the volume. The second-largest section reprints the cartoons and articles about Kierkegaard published in The Corsair and includes excerpts from the autobiography of Meir Goldschmidt, editor of The Corsair.